(Excerpted from the manuscript, A
Journey Unto Revelation’s End, by Steve Santini)
The Feminine Gender of the
Holy Spirit
On the Orthodox Revision of the Gender of the Holy Spirit
Jaroslav Siefert, one of the Nobel Prize
winning poets, has said that if you want to know truth look to the heretics.
Jesus Christ said that his words are truth. Jesus, himself, by most at the time
was considered the worst of heretics and even today in secrets of some hearts
he is considered the same and worthy of his humiliating death. Paul, in his
time, was, and to this day, is considered by many as a chief heretic. He, too,
was personally silenced by execution. Marcion, a labeled second century heretic
whose actions insured that the Pauline letters would be preserved, was also
silenced in a differing and more enduring way.
When we look for truth along the bloody trail
of the heretics what they said needs to be harmonized with the words about and
from the chief heretic, Jesus Christ. In of itself, being labeled a heretic
does not guarantee the truth of the entire message or even any part of it. If
the message of the heretic does harmonize with scripture then we have truth.
Martin Luther was considered a heretic by the then established church because
he proclaimed that justification came by faith rather than works. It became
evident from scripture that his words on the subject, in the end, were true. It
was fortunate that he was given the time to develop his message and the means
to make it known to a large number of hearers; otherwise, he and his message,
as others were, could have been swept under the rug of personal destruction so
that we all could still be paying the church to justify our dead family
members.
When we look to the heretics we have two
problems. First, we have the tactics used to destroy what is considered
heretical. The initial response to a heretic is silence so that a response does
not draw the attention of others. If the apparent heresy persists the heretic
is punished by character assassination or public humiliation so that others
tremble at the thought of adopting the heresy. Finally, if possible the means
of the state are used to silence the heresy as it was with the Arian
controversy of the fourth century. The heretic’s words are adulterated to
obscure the so-called heresy and to convict him. Tertullian, who was an
educated Roman attorney, used his skill to convict someone by selectively using
Marcion’s words to counter his so-called heresy. Like Tertullian’s writings
against Marcion, many times what we have existent today of the heretics words
were written by those who detested them. It has been said that whether a leader
is determined to be good or bad is based on who writes the history books. In
the case of Marcion, since all of his own writings and writings in support of
him were destroyed, we have only had one side of the story. The second problem
we have is that in places the words of the original scripture have been altered
purposefully to eliminate what the Orthodox Church considered as heresy and its
possible resurgence. This chapter concerns what I believe is one of the most
detrimental alterations of this kind from the texts.
To expose this alteration we ask from our
understandings of the nature of man what could have been the scenario that
precipitated this probable internment of truth. We search among the accumulated
historical debris of some considered church fathers for their silence or
fragmented relics of truth amongst their criticisms. We also search the words
of some who were people of conscience who left us a record of the possible
alternatives to what they were to record for acceptance within the Orthodox
Church. Next we look to the minute detail of the text itself and then to the
scope of all scripture to synthesize our understandings of truth. Finally, we
consider, that if this is true, what are the implications for faith today.
For this study we have begun by focusing on
the heretic, Marcion, who was noted disparagingly as a facilitator of the
so-called Gnostic heresy. What gem or gems of truth can we sift from the
historical remnants of the Gnostics’ beliefs through the detail of the texts
and the scope of scripture to find this pertinent heresy? According to Elaine
Pagels’ enlightening book, The Gnostic Gospels, one of the established
church’s primary fears of and primary accusations of the Gnostics was that they
were attracting large numbers of women and having women minister in contrast to
the Orthodox Church. Was there a basis in ancient scripture for the fundamental
belief in the value of women in their churches or was this a “throw back” to
the more proximate pagan prophetesses and goddesses in Greek religion? From a
variety of sources in their writings it is apparent that they believed that the
Holy Spirit was the feminine spouse of God the Father. As one moves on, I
believe that one will see that they had justification from a basis in scripture
for this belief.
G. Zuntz, the noted higher critic, from his
lifetime of examining the oldest Greek texts and textual fragments from the
third century forward, writes that there was no attempt in the West to maintain
the integrity of the original texts until Jerome produced the Latin Vulgate at
the request of the papacy in the fourth century. Zuntz, by using the standard
practice of textual comparison, in his detailed analysis of the oldest Pauline
manuscript, notes, in his book, The Text of the Epistles,
numerous places where the text has been altered. Jerome, himself, in letters to
his colleagues, bewails the fact that he has so many variant texts to select
from for the compilation of a standardized version. At one point before him he
has the old Hieronymian text and its revision. He says, “The differences
throughout are clear and striking.” In his writings he does leave us a clue to
the subject at hand. At one point he has before him the Gospel to the
Hebrews written in Aramaic used by the Syrian Christians which, as some now
say, was the forerunner to the gospel of Matthew and predated the four
canonical gospels. In it, Jerome says that the Holy Spirit is expressed in the
feminine gender and is considered the mother in law of the soul. (Library 11,
commentary in Isaiah, chapter 11: Library 2, commentary. In Micah 7.6) So here
is some additional external evidence from an unrelated source that the Holy
Spirit was originally considered feminine.
Where
then do we go for direct textual evidence that the Holy Spirit was, in the
origins of Christianity, considered feminine? We go to the existing Greek
minuscules copied in the early part of the last millennium to find only
circumstantial evidence. Likewise, as we go to the earlier copied Greek
uncials, the Byzantine copies, the eastern Syriac Peshitta,
and the Old Latin we find some peripheral corroboration. Then when we go to the
earlier copied Old Syriac or Aramaic that predates the Peshitta we find a pearl
of great price. In the most ancient of the rare Old Syriac copies, the Siniatic
Palimpsest, from the 4th or 5th century, found in the Covenant
of St. Catherine in the Sinia and purchased in Cairo by Mrs. Anes Lewis It was
transcribed by Syriac Professor R.L. Bensly of Cambridge University in 1892,
the words of Jesus in John 14:26 read:
But She -the Spirit - the Paraclete whom He-will-send
to you- my Father - in my name - She will teach you every-thing; She will
remind you of that which I have told you.
(Translation courtesy of Danny Mahar, author of Aramaic Made EZ)
In both the Hebrew and Aramaic language the
word spirit is in the feminine gender but in the Greek language it is
neuter. It is the Greek neuter word, pnuema, that was employed by the
ancient Septuagint translators of the Hebrew Old Testament when they translated
the feminine ruach into Greek. The authors who wrote in Greek were
limited in expressing the Holy Spirit in the feminine by the constraints of the
language. In addition, signposts directing one to the feminine nature of the
Holy Spirit may have been removed or altered. Bart Ehrman, writes in his book, The
Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, that from his comparative analysis, the
Orthodox Church altered the texts to counter various beliefs considered
heresies, especially during the time of Marcion, when they were compiling their
own canon of the four gospels. It was the early gospel of John that was a
favorite of the Gnostics and considered heretical by the Orthodox Church
according to textual critic Walter Bauer. What if to sustain their developing
male hierarchy and to contain the growth of the Marcionite and Gnostic churches
and their attractiveness to women, the orthodox revisionists altered additional
signposts to this feminine aspect of the Holy Spirit and emphasized their
modified canon to counter Marcion’s canon of Luke and the Pauline letters and
the Gnostics beliefs? When we add the evidence in the scope of scripture and the
historical evidence of conflict between the Orthodox Church and the Gnostics,
I believe one can consider this likely.
(It
is also interesting to note in the context of early church history that the
Gnostics’ writings rarely refer to the orthodox canon of the four gospels and
over time refer less and less to it. Could it have been that they were aware of
the revisions concerning the feminine gender of the Holy Spirit and had no
desire to give credence to the altered canon used by the Orthodox Church to stifle
them? This, I believe, eventually worked to their detriment, because it seems
that groups of Gnostics diverged widely from the scripture as a whole. Could it
be that they, in their portion of separation, were eventually reversed and, in
a different manner, twisted in disarray?)
When we move forward and consider the witness
of the stars where no man’s hand can make alterations, the feminine gender of
the Holy Spirit becomes more likely. Moses, in writing the book of Genesis,
proclaims that the luminous celestial bodies in the darkness of night’s heaven
and the sun’s brilliant light are for signs. Signs are symbols that point to
something beyond themselves. Half of the major constellations are named with
Semitic words that are feminine. In fact, within and in proximity to many of
these major constellations are signs that point to a male-female interrelation.
Joseph Seiss’ book The Gospel of the Stars, states that the two figures
in Gemini, according to the most ancient Zodiac of Dendra, are not identical
twins but those of a man and woman walking hand in hand. He goes on to say,
that the word Gemini in the original Hebrew, Arabic and Syriac does not
carry so much the idea of two brought forth at the same birth as it does the
idea of a long betrothal brought to its consummation in perfect marriage. The
old Coptic name of this sign signifies “the completely joined.” The
constellation of Virgo, which represents the woman about to bring forth, has
above it in the sky the constellation Bootes that is named with a masculine
noun. Peter, in his second epistle, calls light in darkness and the dawning sun
a “more sure word of prophecy” than even the voice from heaven heard on the
Mount of Transfiguration. (II Peter 1:19)
Why could it be then that the second century theologians
and translators were blinded to the importance of the femininity of the Holy
Spirit? The power of Rome, in which Western culture is deeply rooted, was built
on the three disciplines of virtus, pietas, and fides. Virtus
conveys the idea of an individual’s harmonious integration. According to Pierre
Grimal, a professor of Latin literature at the Sorbonne, this harmonious
integration may not be what we first think. He writes, “When a Roman spoke of virtus
he was less likely to mean conformity to abstract values than spontaneous
assertion by action of the essential virile qualities of self mastery –
granting to the feminine weakness, with a certain contempt, the characteristic
of impotentia sui, an inability to control its nature.” In the second century, in the West, the
educated Roman male who was trained in this discipline of male self-mastery
became the bishop or the theologian. Because of the prestige and power of Rome
these exerted pressure on the Eastern churches to conform to their doctrines. In
the third century the Roman bishop actually excommunicated all the Eastern
churches that would not change the date of Easter from the Hebrew calendar’s
date that corresponded to a day determined by each year’s particular lunar
cycles to a consistently prescribed Sunday based on the Julian calendar. In
time even the power and influence of the Roman Emperor began to be used by the
West to settle doctrinal disputes with the Eastern churches.
In the East the esteem of women was quite
different from that rendered by this Roman discipline of virtus. The
Hindu culture, which was built upon Eastern thought, yet was spared Roman
influence, today retains many original ingredients of the East. Bishop K.C.
Pallia, a converted Hindu, when teaching from Solomon’s proverbs about the
instruction of the father and the law of the mother writes, “The children have
been taught that the mother comes first, the father second, the teacher third
and God fourth. So in India, if you
don’t love and obey your mother, father, and teacher, there is a saying God
will not sing.”
In the Greek, there is a feminine letter eta that gives light on feminine
divinity. It is used in combination with the Greek word men in one verse of the Biblical texts. These two words are used in
the accepted Greek text in Hebrews chapter six, verse fourteen and are
translated as surely as they
are in secular Greek literature. In Greek these two words are
combined as an idiomatic expression that if translated literally would be
meaningless in English and most other current languages. The first word, eta,
is most times rendered as the dative pronoun, she. The second Greek
word, men, has at its root a relation to the moon. During the Bronze Age
men was the name of an Anatolian moon
goddess. At other places, where it is used without the eta, it is
translated month, which in
ancient eastern culture corresponded to the lunar cycle. When this verse
is read literally, it could read that she-lunar was the one who blessed
Abraham. From this we can say that feminine divinity blessed Abraham.
If the Holy Spirit is feminine, which is most
probable, then, it had a presence in the Old Testament. Stephen, a follower of
Peter, told the religious leaders of Israel that they and their fathers had
always resisted the Holy Ghost. What then would be the name of feminine
divinity in the Old Testament? From this verse in Hebrews, it would reasonably
have a relation to Abraham. When God came to Moses with his charge to lead
these fathers from bondage, he said that he had formerly been know to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob by the name of El Shaddai. (Exodus 6:3) Shaddai, in the
Aramaic, is in the feminine gender. In the Hebrew it has closely associated
words that have feminine meanings. In both the Hebrew and Aramaic, it means full
breasted. Reasonably, in all this, although intentionally closeted away
from the mind’s understanding in the second century, feminine divinity has had
an ongoing principle role in the affairs of men.
What it being dealt with is the Gnostic
belief that the Holy Spirit is the feminine spouse of God the Father, the
witness of an early Syrian Hebrew manuscript that the Holy Spirit is feminine
and, as such, is the mother in law of the soul and marginalized etas.
(In this context it is also revealing that the Greek word for soul is
rendered in the feminine gender.) We also have the testimony of John 14:26 in a
copy of the Old Syriac. We are now looking beyond the minute detail of the
texts to the light of the scope of scripture to see if these supposed heretical
beliefs have additional substantiation and an application to further faith.
The eminent nineteenth century British
Biblical scholar, E.W. Bullinger, in his book, A Great Cloud of Witnesses has
said that the Greek word in Hebrews chapter eleven for the heavenly country that
Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob sought is used six times in
scripture. He says in all of the five other places “it is rendered his own
country, referring to the earthly parental home of Mary and Joseph.” These patriarchs sought a homeland with both
spiritual mother and father without fulfillment. They looked for what Paul
found when the mystery was revealed to him.
Paul
also uses this word, country, though from its feminine root when he
speaks of the whole family in heaven and on earth in Ephesians chapter
three verse fifteen. Natural observation and the definition of words require
that we define a family as mother and father with their progeny. There is a
section of Pauline scripture that adds much light when considered in its
entirety. It is Romans chapter one. Romans and both Corinthian letters were
written at a time when Paul was taking the churches onward to a more mature
level of understanding of the family of God, as later revealed in Ephesians,
Philippians and Colossians. This was the time for him to bring the church
through the transition from those things seen on this earth to those things
unseen in heaven. He understood that the original natural order of things was a
pattern for those things unseen in the heavenlies and that the
interrelationship of God’s creation on earth was a schoolhouse for learning the
heavenly plan of salvation. In Romans chapter one verse twenty he says
according to the King James Version:
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal
power and Godhead;
The book of Genesis is the fundamental Biblical record of those things that are made from the creation of the world. Paul writes that the unseen can be seen by the things that are made. In Genesis, the book of things made, we see divinity’s desire to make man in their image.
The Hebrew word for God in this verse is elohiym. It is in the plural so the
pronouns us, and our are properly supplied. Any thing more than one is plural. In
the next verse the Hebrew word for God is also elohiym. In this next verse, the pronoun translated as his
is also plural and should be translated their. The image of their own, in which elohiym created man, was male and
female. These Gods or elohiym were
and are two; male and female- the Father and the Holy Spirit. They made mankind
in the likeness of themselves.
In Genesis, before man is formed out of the
dust of the ground and is given the breath of life to become a living soul, he
is created first as male and female in the image of God. It is only after man
is formed out of the ground and after being made a unified living soul that man
is separated into two distinct parts to fulfill God’s desire for a new family
through procreation. The later context of Romans chapter one deals ultimately
with the behavior of the two seen parts. It contains Paul’s strong admonition
against homosexual and lesbian behavior. Paul’s concern about this behavior was
not based on a desire to reveal the self-incriminating judgment just upon those
who engaged in the practice but was based on a desire to bring all men up to
understand the mystery that had been hidden in God from before the foundations
of this world. Here, in Romans chapter one, Paul uses this obvious example of
human corruption for a warning to all humankind. All have endeavored, in some
form or fashion, outside of faith, in sincere ways, to intemperately and
impatiently attain the divine through preconditioned self-satisfying means.
In all of Paul’s writings there are, it
seems, only two things about which he was most concerned in the church –
faithfulness in the marriage relationship and faithfulness to his gospel. He
knew that the one flesh of the marriage relationship was a shadow of things
unseen in the realm of the soul and the realm of the Spirit. In Ephesians when
he speaks about the one flesh relationship between husband and wife he concludes
by saying, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the
church.” Without a respect for the power brought forth by the union of male and
female and an appreciation for the corresponding sanctity of the sexual
relationship of husband and wife in this earthly realm, Paul knew that one
would limit one’s self from having one’s eyes opened to understand the mystery
of Godliness emanating from the heavenly realm. He was dedicated to the
revelation given him from Jesus Christ and his commission to first bring forth
the fulfillment of salvation’s plan attained through the knowledge of the
masculine wed with the wisdom of the feminine to bring forth the union in
Christ.
Now we speak more specifically to the Holy
Spirit being the mother in law of the soul according to the Hebrew Syrians in
light of the scope of scripture and from the light that the Greek word for soul
is also in the feminine gender. They, being from a Jewish background, had
always believed that they collectively as a bride would become married to the
Messiah at which time all their sin would be forever cleansed. As ones
betrothed to be married to the Messiah they knew from the scripture and their
culture that they were the property of their mother in law to be prepared for
entrance into a new family upon the culmination of the marriage ceremony. In
Genesis, the book of things made, when Abraham’s oldest servant brought
Rebecca, the betrothed of Isaac, back from his far off relatives she first went
to dwell in Sarah’s tent until the actual wedding feast. Ruth stayed with her
mother in law Naomi even after her husband and the husband of Naomi died rather
than return to her original family for support. She knew when she entered her
husband’s family that in the event of his death that she would revert to being
the property of her mother in law until she married another son or male blood
line relative within the family or even waited for her mother in law to bear
another son as a future husband for her. From the Old Testament record of things
that were made and from their Hebrew gospel they could see that the Holy Spirit
was the mother of the one to whom they were betrothed and as such the mother in
law of their souls. Still there was a completing portion of truth that was
later revealed to Paul that they did not yet know.
The gospel of Matthew, which, as some
scholars say, was taken from the earlier gospel of the Hebrews, attributes the
conception of Jesus singularly to the Holy Ghost. Luke, who wrote later and who
had spent considerable time with Paul, writes of the birth of Jesus Christ as a
result of the combination of two distinct entities when he says of the angel’s
words to Mary concerning the coming conception of Jesus, “the Holy Ghost shall
come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.” It was
this encompassing knowledge of the Highest, or Father, that the twelve apostles
and their followers were not given to know during the early church. Philip,
near the end of his time spent with Jesus, was still asking Jesus to reveal the
Father unto them. It is in Paul’s later transitional epistle of Romans that the
term Abba Father was first given as a term to be used by those who had
separated themselves from this world’s methods and had entered the spirit of
sonship. The Aramaic word abba lends itself to the meaning of “the way
unto the hidden source.”
So far we have seen that the original belief
of the early church was that the Holy Spirit was feminine according Gnostic
writings and an early Hebrew gospel. We have seen the substantial declaration
from Paul that the things unseen of the power of the eternal Godhead are
clearly understood by the things that are seen, referring primarily to things
made in Genesis and written within the context of male-female sexual relations.
Now let’s touch on several practical ramifications for growing faith.
As written in the previous chapter entitled “That Day”, according
to Jewish culture the mother had sole responsibility and authority for the care
of the children in the family until they were five years old and then primary
responsibility until a daughter married into a new family or a son passed the
age of thirteen. Recently in a national news magazine it was written, as if it
were a new discovery, that around five years old children matured to understand
their independence and uniqueness as either male or female. It was at this time
that the children began their formal education within the local synagogue or
through accomplished household servants to be presented for maturation upon completion
by the hand of both mother and father. Child psychologists also understand that
the most formative years for a child’s character are those in the earliest
years following birth and that the mother of a child has the strongest
influence on the development of the child during this time. Sociologists have
rightly said that the future character of a society rests in the hearts of
mothers. Researchers at Princeton University have found that moral decisions
are made predominately within the emotional or feminine center of the brain.
(On the other hand, although wives whose husbands perpetually lose car keys may
not agree, men, or masculine portions of the brain, are much more adept in the
abstract ability of spatial orientation and logic.) Yes, as Jesus said, the
kingdom of God is within you.
Why then have we so easily succumbed to the
pressure to disassociate children from the nurturing care and instruction of
their mothers? In the middle of the twentieth century breast-feeding was
discouraged among mothers. Now financial burdens, competitive pressures to
achieve, and some issues of gender equality have sent mothers of young children
into the work place. It is not surprising that in a recent survey a large
majority of working mothers said that they would rather be at home with their
young children. Have we allowed the separation of and the ambiguities in
members of a family because the true nature and function of the Godhead has
been hidden since the first century? Could
all this be another divisive corruption of the family on this earth subtly
designed to obscure the family in heaven?
In the late nineteen sixties gender equality
came to the forefront of social issues. Understandably and reasonably so, since
the model for marriage was based on the hierarchical relationship of male
domination which was imposed upon mankind through the knowledge of good and
evil. In its essence this knowledge demands a hierarchical structure among
humankind in all things. In it, self becomes the center from which all things
are judged and in the final analysis it demands that one be better than another
or one be less than another. After the entrance of good and evil Adam judged
himself better than Eve because he did not take the first bite and less than
God because he saw himself now as naked flesh. There is a new model for
marriage and the family that is based upon what was before the acceptance of
this reasoning process that contrasts all on the linear scale between good at
one terminal and evil at the opposite. The model commences before the beginning
when there were two harmonized in one and then out of one and then back into
one through reunion within and among progeny.
This concept of the feminine gender of the
Holy Spirit is not new or original. The early church had this belief and within
the last several decades it has been considered at large with acceptance by
individuals of faith in all areas. It may be that this writing is a unique
synergism in understandings and that there are some new considerations within
what is written here to add to the accumulating evidence. Whatever the case may
be there is much more that is written and to be written that patterns the
feminine gender of the Holy Spirit through the breadth of scripture. There is
much more to be understood about the male-female harmony in the entire realm of
those things seen. There is much more to be understood about how the spiritual
masculine and the feminine bring forth the brilliance of Paul’s revelation of
the mystery and there is much more to be understood about the wholeness that
this belief will bring to an individual and a society.
For now I close with these thoughts. When one
becomes persuaded of the union of the feminine and masculine, Paul’s revelation
opens dramatically as the consummate epic work of the eternal union that brings
together sons and daughters as the one new man in Christ of Ephesians.
Scriptures can now open to a new light through Paul’s revelation of
consummation within the cross of Christ and through its implantation into the
very core of man’s being to bring forth that one new man to dwell in the
eternal light of the coming new heaven and earth. Accordingly, I offer this
presentation so that the revelatory script of the knowing playwright and the
intuitions of the wise director may be more fully understood and, in the end,
be joined harmoniously together within our souls and within our family to bring
to pass the eternal plan of salvation for all humankind through the cross of Christ.
Precious Moments
For several moments
Gliding through the
forest’s sunlit canopy
I was enveloped in
Her!
In every tree,
In each stretching
root,
Extended branch,
Lifted twig,
luminous green leaf
And fertile falling
seed
The cellular
symbiosis of pulsating,
Regenerating life
From the beginning
Was Her!
Steve Santini, 2001
Related Articles by Steve Santini
The
Apostle Paul's Great Mystery of Christ Revealed
Related Links
More Than Just a Controversy: All About the Holy Spirit
Female Representations of the Holy Spirit in Baha'i and Early Christian Writings
An Opinion on Luther’s View of the Gender of the Holy Spirit
The Old Syriac Palimpsest from St. Catherine's Monastery
Copyright, 2001, Steve Santini
